How to Start an Ebay Home Business
Starting an eBay home business can be a very effective way of making money online, especially as eBay is a renowned and widely used online platform for auctions and currently has millions of daily visitors to sell to. Many people already do full time eBay selling for good money and so can you, if you just learn how to do it. In its essence, there's nothing magic about it, it's just buying and selling to make a profit.
Steps
- Decide what to buy and sell.
- Find out what interests you: The most important step is to find out what you're interested in, because selling what you know will greatly facilitate the task of answering questions of potential buyers about your product. Just imagine you sold cellphones without knowing anything about them and someone asks you whether your cellphone has a 3 mega pixel or a 2 mega pixel camera, and you don't know what a mega pixel is, nor if your product has a camera! The potential buyer would most probably take you for a scam and never consider buying from you!
- Find out what sells well: Selling Polaroid films now when nobody has the corresponding cameras anymore would probably not make you millions, instead of that, selling laptops, cellphones or cameras is a profitable business at this moment. But keep in mind that it can sometimes be more profitable to sell to a smaller market because generally there is not as much competition on these as for very big markets. For instance, if you sold iPhone's, you would have to get them at a very good price to stay competitive because everybody sells them nowadays. So maybe you should choose stuff that's not as hyped in the moment.
- Consider the price range: Selling high-priced items generally allows you to get better profits because you add more value to your product as you would if you sold something that only costs a few bucks. Selling blank notebooks for 7$ when buying them at 5$ gives you 2$ profit each time, selling cellphone for 500$ which you bought at 400$ gives you 100$ profit each time, but keep in mind that in order to sell higher priced items, you need more capital to invest at the start, and you should know your turf because people are less likely to give 500$ to a nobody than giving 7$!
- Find out what interests you: The most important step is to find out what you're interested in, because selling what you know will greatly facilitate the task of answering questions of potential buyers about your product. Just imagine you sold cellphones without knowing anything about them and someone asks you whether your cellphone has a 3 mega pixel or a 2 mega pixel camera, and you don't know what a mega pixel is, nor if your product has a camera! The potential buyer would most probably take you for a scam and never consider buying from you!
- Get your products from wholesalers or drop shippers: This is a crucial part, because here is where your money has to be invested. Look on the web for drop shippers or wholesalers, people which sell you larger quantities of products at good prices, in order to buy something and resell it on eBay. Drop shippers are companies that you don't have to buy the products from, you just sent them a single order when somebody buys a product from you, and they sent it directly to your customer, without you ever seeing the product. This can greatly facilitate your work because there's less for you to worry about, as there is no shipping, etc, but sometimes this has turned out badly for some people, when the drop shipping company sent out the wrong product or something. Be informed exactly what it will cost you to get those products! (Ask about shipping or customs fees!)
- Sell the articles on eBay: Be professional when doing so. Add many photos of the product, preferably ones that you took yourself with much detail. Write in the article description exactly what the product is and in what condition it is. If you sell stuff you already have at home, that's fine, but inform anybody who's looking to buy it if there are scratches or malfunctions, etc. Honesty is most important! And answer in time if you get a question from a buyer, because they're likely to look for someone else's offer if you're not fast enough.
- Check your feedback: Always try to keep a good feedback, nothing is more important on eBay, so you should better give somebody a full refund if he returns your product, because one bad rating can ruin your business. Most people don't even consider buying from you if you have less than 98% good ratings! The customer is king! So do what it takes to keep him happy.
Tips
- always be transparent - describe exactly what it will cost your buyers and what they will get, how long the shipping will take, etc.
- give discounts for group shipping, so people are encouraged to buy more products from you
- inform yourself exactly about the reputation of a drop shipper/wholesaler if you want to buy from him, know what it'll cost you to get the product you want to sell
- use eBay Pulse to find out what sell well at the moment
Warnings
- Always be on the lookout for bad wholesalers. Sometimes they charge you extra for customs if they ship products to you from faraway countries (China, India, etc...) and sometimes you might get a bad mock up of the product you actually wanted to buy, so check what other people are saying on the web about that particular company!
Things You'll Need
- An eBay seller account
- A paypal account - this is the most reliable and fast payment service for eBay, and many people use it, so get an account!
- Endurance to built up your business over the years - it takes time but it's well worth it!
